Produced | Odaily (ID: o-daily)
Produced | Odaily (ID: o-daily)
"Bitmain's annual layoffs are coming."
As soon as this post was published on Maimai, the discussion exploded.
On December 30, 2019, the mining giant Bitmain reported layoffs. By January 6, the employees were officially notified.
For this layoff, according to several insiders, the proportion of layoffs is about 1/3, and the proportion of layoffs in the AI business line is the highest, which will reach 2/3.
Odaily learned from a number of Bitmain-related business line employees that its AI team will be cut from 360 to 100 people. From the perspective of geographical distribution, the AI teams in Chengdu, Wuhan, Shanghai and Shenzhen are almost "disappeared"; from the perspective of business lines , the server team of more than 100 people will be directly cut off.
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AI employees in many places are "destroyed"
The layoffs began with a small meeting of the management team.
"Wu Shuo Blockchain" quoted a Bitmain insider as saying, "Last weekend (December 28th and 29th), Wu Jihan held a related meeting and asked all department managers to submit an optimization list."
By the 30th, news spread like wildfire.
"The day before New Year's Day (December 31), a colleague reminded me to go to Maimai. That's how I know (layoffs)." Zhang Qing, an employee of Bitmain's IC (chip research and development) department, told Odaily.
Another Bitmain employee is still feeling sudden and bewildered by the company's move.
"Recently, I have been thinking about working overtime, completing tasks as soon as possible, and celebrating the New Year with peace of mind. So this (news) is really a bolt from the blue, mainly because there was no sign before, and the salary has been raised." Wang Zhihui, an employee of a domestic branch of Bitmain, shook his head. .
Just 2 months ago, when Wu Jihan returned to Bitmain, all employees received an email from the company mentioning that the company will start an annual salary adjustment from November 4, covering no less than 80% of employees. It is said that most employees except management have gradually received a 20% salary increase.
After the morale of the army stabilized, Wu Jihan began to reorganize his business drastically. A blockchain practitioner commented on the layoffs, "carrots and sticks, both hard and soft."
The general explanation for layoffs within Bitmain is that the halving of Bitcoin next year will bring greater uncertainty to the mining industry. In order to cope with the upcoming risks/opportunities, the company needs to focus on its main business and keep things as simple as possible. At the same time, "this is also a corrective action against the random expansion of the former chairman's business."
Focusing on the main business means partly abandoning AI.
According to Wang Zhihui, the Chengdu AI team originally had more than 20 people, and Wuhan had about 10 people, all of whom were abolished in this plan; the Shanghai AI team had 40-50 people, and only a small number of people such as FAE (field support engineer) were left. The original team of more than 30 people, including AI research and development and sales, is now completely cut off from sales, leaving only a small number of technical staff to support customers.
From the perspective of the business line, the AI personnel cut off by Bitmain are mainly the server team.
According to Lu Yan, an AI researcher at Bitmain, AI research and development mainly consists of several parts, chips, hardware, boards and high-density servers. Before, 1/3 of the company's AI personnel focused on the server, and 1/3 worked part-time on the server. Now, the server team has been cut directly, and other lines have also been slightly reduced.
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AI Has Been Reduced to Bit Sacrifice?
"Two bosses fight, AI workers suffer."
On platforms such as Maimai, Weibo, and Zhihu, posts about layoffs at Bitmain can be seen.
Ketuan Zhan's support for AI is unquestionable, but Jihan Wu's attitude is elusive. Although, Bitmain officials have responded many times, "Ji Han also supports AI."
However, the intensity of layoffs of the AI team this time has made many employees doubt, "The remaining people are unlikely to be successful, and AI may become an abandoned child."
Zhou Shuwen is a member of the tool chain team on the layoff list. "AI research and development is inseparable from various general-purpose tools. The function of the tool chain is the necessary tools for research and development. For example, the compiler, its function is to convert the algorithm into a format that can run on the chip. Without it, the software algorithm cannot be mapped. to the chip. But now it has been cut from 20-30 people to a few people, who can only do maintenance, and it is difficult to continue development.”
Interestingly, while abolishing the AI team, on January 3, Bitmain also set up the CEO of the AI business line for the first time. Many people interpret this as "Bit still has hope in AI." But in Zhou Shuwen's view, "This is probably for outsiders to see."
But from another perspective, the situation may not be so pessimistic. Many employees also regard this layoff as a normal measure to remove redundant personnel and shrink business.
Zhang Qing also received the notice that he was optimized, but he said, "For work, if there are fewer people, spend more time and do it slowly. If the company has the ability to recruit people, it may not be impossible."
Lu Yan, an AI researcher at Bitmain who escaped the layoffs, is also more optimistic.
He believes that in 2018, Bitmain spent a lot of money to recruit a lot of people. No matter how big the waves are, there are still real talents left behind, and making AI chips is not completely a pile of heads.
From the perspective of business line, Lu Yan analyzed that Bitmain's abolishment of the server team does not affect the core of AI.
"Purely making AI chips does not use so many people. The manpower required for servers is 4-5 times that of chip research and development, and the difficulty of research and development is even 10 times. I thought servers were not suitable for Bit to do. It was too difficult and cold. Wu Ji didn’t make such a unicorn. It’s normal to try burning money when you have money, and chop it if you don’t have money.”
In Lu Yan's view, the previous Bitmain = Cambrian + server, "Now that the server is cut, it is basically the same as the Cambrian."
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"It's reasonable to close the site, but I didn't expect the compensation to be too ugly"
Since news of layoffs spread on December 30, there have been constant negative criticisms against Bitmain on platforms such as Maimai.
Criticisms of layoffs after salary increases and layoffs at the end of the year are one aspect. More importantly, many laid-off employees are not satisfied with the compensation, although a considerable number of them understand the layoffs.
"I still like working in this company. Closing the sites (offices) is reasonable, but I didn't expect the compensation to be too ugly." Wang Zhihui felt helpless in anger. (According to the official introduction, in addition to the Beijing headquarters, Bitmain has also set up offices in Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Chengdu, Fuzhou, Singapore and Malaysia.)
In order to fight back against the company's unreasonable compensation, Bitmain employees pulled up a "rights protection group" of more than 250 people, elected negotiators, and were responsible for negotiations with the company and possible arbitration matters.
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Bitter employees protest with banners in Beijing company widely circulated on the Internet
So, is Bitmain’s layoff compensation reasonable or not?
According to a number of Bitmain employees who were "negotiated" to lay off employees, the compensation given by the company is N+1 salary compensation in line with the labor law. The employees have no objection to this, and the disputes are all on 13 salary and year-end bonus.
According to Zhang Qing, the 13th salary is the last month (December 2019) and two months of salary will be paid, which is written in the employee handbook. "I asked HR at the time (onboarding), and HR said that there is no need to write if there is nothing to do. This is an industry practice."
But in the face of the sudden layoffs, the practice seems to be the exception. "HR has insisted that in January, only N+1 and last month's salary will be paid." Zhang Qing said.
In this regard, Odaily consulted Wenwen, a senior HR with 4 years of experience, who said, "Although it is not written in the Offer, this kind of clearly stipulated salary must be issued."
The second is the year-end bonus. The year-end bonus is regarded as an incentive salary. Even if the year-end bonus for XX months is stipulated in the Offer, many companies usually make a supplementary agreement. The company will decide whether to pay or how much to pay based on individual performance and the company's operating conditions. The same is true for Bitmain.
However, many laid-off employees are dissatisfied with the fact that the company provides a "guaranteed year-end" that "the annual bonus for the first year is not less than X months' salary" in the Offer, as shown in the following figure:
Zhang Qing joined the job in September 2018, and has been working for 16 months, but in 2019, only the year-end part of the 4 months of joining in 2018 was issued, that is to say, by 2019, one year after Zhang Qing joined the job In August, Bitmain was supposed to honor the remainder of the first year’s “guaranteed year-end”, but it was delayed because the company’s bonus was “paid in the next financial year”. Now, Zhang Qing is about to leave. Wenwen believes that the company should make up for the year-end bonus that Zhang Wen deserves.
"When the company pays the money, it should not affect the cashing of the bonus." Wen Wen said.
Therefore, "Many people who came in in 2018 and had a guaranteed end-of-year offer were unwilling to sign. Most people actually just wanted to take this part of the black and white paper away and signed. In fact, even if it is like last year's N+2, everyone understands The company pays one month more than the normal compensation, which is better." Zhang Qing told Odaily.
As for "Wu Shuo Blockchain" mentioned that "some employees signed the resignation agreement normally, because a considerable number of options matured in advance", Wang Zhihui, who joined Bitmain since 2017, said bluntly, "It is unlikely that it is for the option .”
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If you don't sign now, you will pay less tomorrow
On the one hand, Zhang Qing, Wang Zhihui, and Zhou Shuwen were waiting for news from the negotiators, and resolutely implemented the strategy of "rejecting a visa". On the other hand, Bitmain also made a big move.
"Now everyone can't work, the server can't log in, and the company's intranet prohibits WeChat login..." Such hard measures are not a problem, and threats are followed one after another.
According to Li Yuanyuan, a Bitmain employee who was "negotiated" to lay off employees, "They reminded me not to make trouble, and the company will treat me as an enemy."
"On Wednesday, there was news that if you don't sign this week, you will only have N next week. On Thursday, you will be informed directly that the compensation plan will be changed to N from tomorrow... I feel like we are stumbling blocks on the company's way forward, being cleaned up one by one .”
The company has a tough attitude. Several laid-off employees of Bitmain told Odaily that in such an atmosphere, more and more people signed up, and the previous "rights protection camp" became weaker and weaker.
As for the avenue of arbitration to protect the legitimate rights and interests of employees, it also appears weak at this moment. Li Yuanyuan told Odaily, "I can't go to arbitration now. Because the company is only talking about negotiation, and has not issued a notice of termination of the labor contract or layoffs. The company can't do anything without actually telling you 'you don't have to go to work'."
"There are still colleagues in Shenzhen who have not signed, but I heard that their office is about to withdraw the lease. If there is a stalemate, they will have no office, and they may have to accept N in the end." Wang Zhibin was depressed.
Faced with the company's compensation plan and the rights protection claims of his former colleagues, Lu Yan couldn't help thinking, is the company's cash flow really okay?
But on the optimistic side, Bitmain's laid-off employees have a way to retreat. According to Li Yuanyuan, before and after she and her colleagues were laid off, there were a lot of headhunters on Maimai. But the market is indeed much worse than last year. Last year, major companies came to ask for layoff lists and called one by one. This year, all headhunters are recruiting, and there are fewer companies to choose from.
Regarding the details of the layoffs and compensation, Odaily asked Bitmain for confirmation, and the latter responded that: Bitmain will continue to make normal personnel adjustments depending on market conditions and business development; Bitmain welcomes outstanding talents from all walks of life as always.
(At the request of the interviewer, the characters in the article are all pseudonyms)
